Peter Russell, political scientist and constitutional scholar at the University of Toronto, taking on the view that Federal Court experience is always an asset, points out that a Federal Court judge who may not have dealt with the
Quebec Civil Code for many years would "have the potential to overturn decisions by [Quebec Court of Appeal] jurists whose everyday life in the law is in Quebec." Plaxton and Mathen give the more extreme example of someone with ten years at the Bar who "then pursued an altogether different line of work" for, say, 25 years.
The
Quebec Civil Code contains the same principles pertaining to property that are set out in the French Code provisions cited above:
THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC has officially recognized the customary rules of adoption of the First Nations and Inuit with a bill tabled June 13 at the National Assembly to modify the
Quebec Civil Code. "This is a very important step in Quebec's recognition of our status as Aboriginal people and of the specific laws of governance of the First Nations," said a pleased Ghislain Picard, chief of the Assembly of the First Nations of Quebec and Labrador.
In the district court, Defendant submitted the affidavit of a Canadian attorney and argued that the Quebec court properly exercised jurisdiction under Article 3136 of the
Quebec Civil Code...." [143-44].
That passage is used to segue into the
Quebec Civil Code, which was recodified in 1994.
Justice Minister Paul Begin has said that his redefinition in the
Quebec Civil Code was his greatest achievement, of which he is "most proud."
The
Quebec Civil Code as originally enacted reflected the basic values of 19th century Quebec.
the draft of the
Quebec Civil code. (60) But the Quebec draft
the view expressed in apodictic fashion thus making its heuristic function evident--by Quebec Minister of Justice Gil Remillard to the effect that the
Quebec Civil Code "follows no other legislative model" (Commentaires du ministre de la Justice, t.
But he seemed to think that marriage being a federal jurisdiction, the changes in the
Quebec Civil Code would have little legal weight.
In this context, the term 'civil law' does not refer to the distinction between the common-law tradition and the
Quebec Civil Code. It refers to the distinction between the law that governs relationships between individuals, called private law, and the law that governs the individual's relationship to the state, called public law.
See C.C.R.O., The
Quebec Civil Code, Commentaries, vol.